


Here Be Monsters

by Innwich



Category: The Evil Within (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, DLC Spoilers, Gen, Religious Imagery & Symbolism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-14
Updated: 2015-03-14
Packaged: 2018-03-17 17:29:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3537956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Innwich/pseuds/Innwich
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Juli was no cop, but her partners weren’t what they seemed either.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Here Be Monsters

“You lost something,” Joseph said, holding up a gun.

Juli reached for the gun in her holster. It was gone during her scuffle with Joseph. “Crap.”

Joseph dismantled her gun in two easy moves. The pieces clattered to the floor. “That’s better.”

His papery skin was stretched too tightly over his skull. Where his eyes used to be were two festering holes. Fangs protruded over his lower lip, curved and wicked, something that belonged in a snake’s mouth.

“You’re not like the others,” Juli said.

“Do you think you are the only one with secrets, Kidman?” Joseph said.

Before Juli could blink, Joseph grabbed her by her neck and opened his mouth wide. Juli shoved at his jaw with the heel of her palm. It forced his mouth shut with a click and snapped his head back.

His lip was bleeding from where he’d bitten himself.

“I’ll get you back for that,” Joseph snarled. His rotting breath was hot and sour on her face.

Judi put a foot on his chest and yanked herself free from his grasp.

A great light shone high above them, turning everything into a sea of white. Joseph moaned in pain.

Half-blinded, Juli covered her eyes and stumbled away from the light. She grabbed a cabinet, and flung herself behind it.

The light faded.

As stars faded from her vision, she began to make out the circular room they were in. The room had the set-up of a hospital ward. A few beds were arranged in a neat circle around the room. The mattresses were stained with age. A thick layer of grime covered what might have once been bleached white walls.

“You should’ve chosen someone else to screw over,” Joseph said. “We’re bad news.”

There wasn’t much space for maneuver in the room. The curtain partitions offered some cover, but they wouldn’t be enough to keep her hidden from Joseph for long. What she needed was space and weapons.

Seeing a door to her left, she inched towards it. The automatic system whirred to life and the door slid open.

“I can hear you,” Joseph said from behind her.

Juli ran.

The door led to a dark room filled with chairs facing a large projection screen.

There was an axe stuck in a control panel. Juli pulled it out. She hid behind the row of chairs, resting the axe on the floor. It didn’t feel right to be in STEM without her gun. Her holster was too light and it was throwing her balance off. She itched to hold a gun.

Joseph walked into the room. “You don’t want to be one of us, Kid. There is a special kind of hell for people like us.”

Juli held her breath as Joseph strode right past her.

He peered into a small bright room next door. He had his back to her.

Juli crept up to him, the axe weighing heavy in her hand. She was careful not to let her heels clicked against the tiles.

The axe hit its target with a dull thud. Joseph buckled under the force of her hit and crashed into a wall.

“Fuck you, Kidman!” Joseph screamed. “I’ll bleed you dry for that!”

Heart thudding, Juli ran back into the circular room before he recovered.

In the two years of their partnership, Juli had never heard Joseph so much as raised his voice to her. Joseph had been good to her. As a matter of fact, both he and Sebastian had been good enough to her. It’d been the first time she’d felt she belonged. She might even have understood what it’d meant to be in a team, to feel like she belonged.

Juli was crouching next to a bed, when the door to the room opened. Joseph walked in with a bleeding back.

“You can wear a badge but you won’t ever be a cop,” Joseph said. “A crook is a crook is a crook.”

A silvery gleam caught Juli’s eye. It was a small metal cross, one of those that hung from a nun’s rosary.

“I used to feed on street rats. The human kind,” Joseph said. “They were easy targets. No one missed them when they died.”

Juli curled a hand around the cross. The metal was cool to the touch.

The cross fit right in her fist.

Joseph stopped in front of her, and turned his eyeless face to her. “Tell me, Kidman, who will miss you when you’re gone?”

“Go to hell,” Juli said. She held the cross up in front of her.

Joseph shrank away from her. He threw his arm over his face, shielding it from the cross. Juli stepped towards him, and he stumbled back. It was the first time Juli had gotten an upper hand on someone else in STEM. She’d be lying if she said it didn’t feel good to have the tables turned.

“I’ve seen Sebastian wearing a cross around his neck before,” Juli said. “I thought it might work.”

“He’s a good little Christian,” Joseph hissed. “I didn’t peg you for one too.”

“Don’t call me that,” Juli said sharply.

The cross flared with white heat, setting itself on fire. Juli dropped it before it was burnt into her palm, and it melted into a puddle at her feet.

“Shit,” Juli said. She ducked under a bed.

“Can’t hide behind a God you don’t believe in, Kidman,” Joseph said.

From the tell-tale taps of his shoes, he was back on his feet and stalking around the room again.

“I hope you’ve brought wolfsbane with you.” Joseph laughed. The sound echoed in the circular room. “God knows you’ll need it when Sebastian finds out what you did.”

There was an axe on a bed on the other side of the room. The problem was that Joseph was standing in the center of the room. He would get a clean shot at her if she tried to run past him.

She had to distract him.

“Wolfsbane?” Juli said.

Bullets peppered the bed under which she’d been hiding seconds ago. Juli dove for the curtain partition nearest to her. She ran, sticking close to the wall, to the other side of the room.

“Haven’t you heard of it before?” Joseph said.

Juli crept to the bed and grabbed a hold of the axe. The blade was embedded deep in the mattress. She gave the axe a few wiggled, and pulled it free.

“Even a man who is pure at heart, and says his prayers by night,” Joseph said, “may become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.”

There was no time to lose. She had to do it, while he was distracted, lost in the sound of his own voice.

Juli brought the axe up over her shoulder, and swung it down.

The floor creaked under her feet.

Joseph spun around and caught her arm, squeezing her arm hard enough to leave bruises in the shape of his fingers. Juli yanked her hand back and brought the axe down onto Joseph’s chest.

The axe sliced his vest clean open. Something in his chest cracked under the blade.

“You’re in the company of the damned.” Joseph gurgled. Blood trickled out of his mouth. “Don’t say… I didn’t warn you.”

He morphed back to his human self. His face was smooth and clean of blood. The only thing that didn’t heal was the axe wound in his chest. Joseph stared up at Juli and stretched a hand out to her. He almost looked… betrayed.

His eyes rolled back into his head, and he slumped onto the floor.

“Dammit, Joseph. You should’ve just stayed out of the way,” Juli breathed. Her words were lost as the room shook. The lighting fixtures swung, casting trembling shadows on the walls.

The world warped.

\- - -

Sebastian had his lamp lit while Juli made her way down the hallway with him. Parts of the ceiling had caved in, making it difficult for them to access certain areas of the building.

“I’m so glad you’re all right,” Sebastian said. “Ever since the church-”

“You were at the church?” Juli said.

“Yeah. Joseph and I,” Sebastian said. “He’s in bad shape, or at least he was when I last saw him.”

If Joseph had been at the church, then he couldn’t have died from his fight with her. She didn’t know whether she should feel relieved or not. On the one hand, she didn’t kill her partner. On the other hand, he’d been pretty intent on killing her the last time they met.

Juli made sure to let Sebastian take the lead and stay far behind him. She didn’t want to have another unpleasant surprise sprung on her while her back was turned.

She knew none of this was real, but paranoia and fear was wearing her mind to a frazzle. She saw shadows where there were none. She was tired of finding the tapes and documents that haunted her from every step of the way; she was sick of having her own words played back at her on audio recordings that she damn well knew didn’t exist.

“Ugh!” Sebastian was kneeling on the ground. He clutched his head. Blood dripped out of his nose. “Stay back.”

Juli didn’t need to be told twice. She ran for the door.

The door wouldn’t budge.

“You sold us out,” Sebastian growled. “After everything we’ve done for you.”

There were no hospital beds or cabinets for Juli to hide behind. There was another door on the other side of the room. She’d backed herself into a corner by choosing the wrong door.

“You were my partner; I would’ve died for you,” Sebastian said. “Not anymore.”

He lunged for her.

Juli emptied her gun into his chest, as his curled fingers scratched her throat. It put three holes into his vest and knocked him off his trajectory. Sebastian dropped onto the floor and howled with pain.

“Let me out of here!” Juli tugged at the door handle. This time, the door opened.

She locked the door behind herself. Her hands were shaking from the adrenaline rush as she reloaded her gun. She looked through the glass pane in the door.

Sebastian had dropped onto all fours.

Fur sprouted from his skin. His clothes were straining at the seams. A button popped from his shirt. His red tie was pulled taut around his throat. His ears had lengthened. His face was covered in dark fur. Saliva and foam coated his snout.

Sebastian flung himself at the door. The door shuddered. Juli jolted away from it.

Sebastian let out a long howl. He scratched at the door. The screech of his claws on the door raised the hair on the back of Juli’s neck.

“Wolfsbane,” Juli said. “Where the hell do I get a wolfsbane?”

The door creaked, as Sebastian slammed himself against it. It was starting to give way.

“It’s no use.”

Juli trained her gun on Ruvik. Ruvik fixed her with a blank stare from under his hood.

“Stay away from me,” Juli said. “Why are you doing this?”

“I didn’t have to do anything. You’re all damned either way.”

“Bullshit.”

“A lycanthrope is cursed to kill or be killed by his loved ones,” Ruvik said. “As for you, there is a Field of Blood waiting, Judas.”

The door broke in half. A flying piece of wood missed crushing Juli by inches.

“You shouldn’t have run from the light,” Ruvik said, before he disappeared.

Sebastian stepped over the splinters, his claws digging into the tiled floor. He was a hulking mass of fur and muscles. Drool dripped from his teeth.

There was nothing human about him. There would be no talking, no reasoning and no pleading. Juli was the closest thing to a lean cut of meat in this room. Sebastian’s gaze glowed dark with hunger.

With her back to the wall, Juli raised her gun at Sebastian.

She’d stopped praying many years ago. There was no point in starting now.


End file.
